Reply to Can you be a native of America/United States of America if you are not Native American?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Aren’t people native to the place where they were born? 
[/quote]

Not necessarily.

Most in the U.S. are occupiers.[/quote]

ALL are occupiers.

Those "Native Americans" came from Asia.[/quote]

Not only that, but they didn't even come all at once.  There were waves of them migrating across the land bridges over the centuries and even over millennia in some cases.  So even among the indigenous people in the Americas, you still had established people and newcomers.  And yes, they fought each other and took their lands many times over.  These are humans after all, and not some "noble savages."[/quote]

I am getting really tired of this misinformation being spread, both repeatedly on this thread and every time people talk about indigenous Americans. No, they were not all fighting and taking over each other's territories all the time. There were maybe 50 million people across both continents, which cover 17 million square miles. Tribes were not huge and lived in villages that were loosely congregated by language and culture across larger areas, similar to how Alaska natives live today. When Europeans arrived, they were able to establish boundaries between tribes pretty easily and drew maps using rivers, mountains, etc. There may be have been occasional clashes over hunting territories, problems following ecological stressors, and a small number of tribes with an aggressive culture, but overall there is not much evidence that there was overlap or conflict among different groups, who were more focused on day-to-day issues than "territory."

The fighting and political conflicts among tribes that most people know about happened after contact when fur trapping became extremely lucrative and territorial rights and boundaries became important to tribes. Also, as Europeans pushed westward and consumed natural resources, tribes that previously had not had to deal with scarcity suddenly had to develop mechanisms to protect themselves and were encouraged by the US Government to fight with each other. These were not traditional patterns.

It is ignorant to post these kinds of responses "they fought each other and took their lands many times over" without knowing the history, and I suspect it is done with racist intent. [/quote]

There are clear examples of Native American warfare before European contact. Your post ignores this reality and is, ironically, ignorant and racist itself.[/quote]

The people who raise the "native Americans were fighting with each other before contact" argument are generally not making informed historical arguments, though. They are making arguments that are illogical, racist, or false. E.g., 1) All Native Americans fought with each other, so Europeans fighting with any/all of them is morally equivalent. 2) Native Americans fought savagely against each other (some were even cannibals! they fought with each other to capture humans for sacrifices!) so they were evil cultures anyhow and we don't need to shed tears over them. 3) The United States territory was primarily acquired through military superiority and not violations of agreements (and later,) treaties signed between governments. [/quote]

Yup, I agree with all of these arguments...[/quote]

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